Pick Up the Pieces: Excursions in Seventies Music.

This work by Corbett (Vinyl Freak) starts slowly, and, as with the music he reviews, readers initially won’t be sure what exactly he’s got here. Memoir, musicological history, song reviews, social analysis? Actually, it’s all of these things and more, and just as a rich gumbo benefits from the perfect combination of diverse ingredients, so does Corbett’s analysis and so do the 1970s songs and performances he examines. The author places all of this firmly in the context of his own experience, and there’s a little more autobiography than might be strictly necessary, but he deftly balances youthful discovery and development with several decades of hindsight. Occasionally, he indulges in speculation and fan theory but effectively walks the line between fact and opinion, and it’s a tribute to his ability that one is always willing to hear him out.